Tuesday, August 21, 2012

I have returned to update you on my Day Zero progress. I'm not gonna lie, it isn't going spectacularly, but things are still happening! In fact, I graduated!

Me with my mom and dad on graduation day!

Yes, it's very exciting and I'm so happy to be done with my degree. If you don't know much about I/O psychology, I won't bore you here. But I loved the program at Hofstra University, so feel free to take a look.

Sunday, January 29, 2012

This was the HARDEST challenge I've done so far. I started on June 19, 2011 and my original end date was December 18. Unfortunately, I missed some weeks, as you may have noticed. But I decided, rather than start my six months all over again, to expand the challenge until I blogged the equivalent of six months. This put my final completion date at January 29th.

And I have made it.

It wasn't easy, and sometimes it wasn't fun. But I did learn something about myself - blogging is not for me. Maybe it's the impostor syndrome talking, but I just don't think that I'm all that interesting. The pressure is too great with how busy my life is right now. And I just don't enjoy it as much as I thought I would.

So I have decided that, now that I have reached my goal, this blog will only be used to document the rest of my Day ZeroProject journey. Mainly so I have something to go back to and see my accomplishments all laid out in one place. It's been real, and it's been fun, but I'm a bad blogger!

Thanks for reading, feel free to keep an eye out for Day Zero posts in the future.

Saturday, January 28, 2012

As you all know, I'm a Texas girl. I've lived in Texas since I was seven years old, and moved up to New York in August 2010. Since I've been here, I've grown to really appreciate things about Texas and, in turn, really miss those things. But I've also fallen in love with a lot that New York has to offer. My typical activities have also changed since living here. I bring you a comparison of my life in Texas (mostly in College Station, during college) to my life in New York:

Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Do you ever feel like you're totally making things up as you go? Like at any minute, your boss is going to realize that you have no idea what you're doing or talking about? Like you should never have gotten into graduate school? Like you're an impostor?

You are not the only one! I spend half of my time wondering how I even got to where I am right now. "How did I ever get into grad school?" "Why did they even hire me?" "Soon everyone's going to realize that I'm making this up and I have no business being here."

This is known as Impostor Syndrome. Basically, someone experiencing impostor syndrome cannot internalize their own accomplishments. They believe they are not capable of what they have accomplished, and have done so by sheer luck. The term was coined by Pauline Clance and Suzanne Imes in their 1978 paper, "The Impostor Phenomenon Among High Achieving Women: Dynamics and Therapeutic Intervention" (PDF available here).

They gave this name to high-performing but inwardly anxious women who were among the professionals attending Clance's group-therapy sessions. "These women do not experience an internal sense of success," wrote Clance. "They consider themselves to be 'impostors'" despite scoring well on standardized tests, earning advanced degrees, and receiving professional awards. Early on, this phenomenon was associated with women, a belief that persists today. But subsequent studies, including another by Clance, have shown that men are affected in equal numbers.

So why does this happen? There are many beliefs as to what causes this impostor syndrome. This is often seen in individuals who were placed in remedial classes as children, who, in spite of their later success, still believe themselves to be underachievers. It is also seen often in women and minorities, likely due to stereotypes of intelligence (e.g., "women aren't good at math" and "black students are not as smart as white students").

The author offers suggestions for overcoming your impostor syndrome. These include keeping track of positive compliments you receive rather than blowing off praise, and simply talking to other people who feel the same way!

So read the articles, and let me know what you're doing to work on your impostor syndrome. I personally am practicing the art of taking compliments sincerely, rather than blowing them off. When someone compliments my work, in my head, I remind myself - "yes, I am AWESOME. I deserve that compliment. So thank you, friend. Thank you."